My question is about patch budding of figs, as opposed to other grafting techniques... I am not interested in whether or not I should do it, and where to source budwood. Please stick to the subject.

I did reply to part of your question.

be sure to get your scionwood from Virus Indexed block foundation materials at your Regional Agriculture station.

My subject is about the technique of bud grafting versus other grafting techniques of grafting onto large limbs. The subject is all about what the relative successes would be. It has nothing to do with sourcing scionwood...I already have the scionwood....Please do not start a plant pathology thread..you can start your own if that is the subject you like..

scion, Patch budding with figs works quite well. See the link below.
There is information on grafting figs in some old publications, but I've never tried it.
Hope this helps.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fig Budding

Thank you fignut.
You have demonstrated the chip budding method.
However I am specifically asking about the PATCH BUDDING method success rate for figs.

scion, I thought the terms were Australian - US equivalents, sorry. What is "patch" budding?
As for the success rate for chip budding, it is relatively high. I can't give you a percentage, but if you are careful, most buds take. Fig budding doesn't seem to be any different than other fruit budding.
Regular grafting techniques can't be used because of the pithy center of fig branches. Just because it doesn't seemed to be used much, I assume (100 per cent guess) that the fig grafting tecnique isn't as reliable. As I said, I haven't tried it yet.

Boizeau, I found your advise on topic and informative. I really appreciate all the information contributed on this forum. There are so many nice people willing to pitch in and try and help on this forum.
Thanks everyone! Kern

fignut,
patch budding is different the chip budding. I have attached a link that will show the technique.

Scion,
I would believe it would work. I haven't done it personally with patch budding. I've done it successfuly with chip budding.
What varieties do you have in syndey? I'm sure Black Genoa is one of them, since it's very common there.

Bass

Here is a link that might be useful: patch budding

fignut,
you are a great fig 'break-though' ...

Bonsaist,
Thank you for your reply, and for demonstrating what patch budding actually is on line.
BUT.....I am still seeking a comparison on how successful patch budding is compared with other methods of budding or grafting mature figs. If no-one can help that is quite ok...LOL

Scion, there has been a few people trying to help you, maybe there is just not alot of people here familiar with this method, maybe you can find out information at another source, site ? I don't know of any off hand, but if i find out, I will pass along the word to you so maybe your questions can be answered. Ciao

Scion,
Why don't you try all the grafting methods, compare them, then let us all know what you find? We'll be waiting.

Italiangirl,

Thank you also for your reply and your effort to assist.

Allow me also to add the following, which may offer more perspective on my enquiry about WHY I am discussing the success of patch budding established fig trees (over other methods like chip budding) for the purposes of adding on other varieties......

I want to bud/graft low down on the main trunks now, without much time delay, rather than first chop down the limb to that same level and wait for thin side shoots to emerge, and then wait again until these shoots are hardened enough to chip bud.

If the patch budding method IS reasonably successful in figs, it means I can proceed with the budding immediately, hence saving substantial time.

Note, we are in late summer here in Sydney Australia so budding season is still definitely ON!!!

Scion
See if the following ucdavis article is helpful. It talks about patch budding of larger trees and it is not chip budding:

http://ceglenn.ucdavis.edu/files/52297.pdf
(pick and past)

Oops, sorry. This site was already pointed under "Patch budding' link above.

Captainjohn,

I am doing this grafting job as a favour to a friend. He has a small fig plant, which crops twice per season, that he absolutely adores! BUT, like a lot of us, he is greedy and wants a large crop soon!!!

Hence he has asked me to add it onto one of his big fig trees (as I have many years experience in budding fruit trees and roses, but I have never before had a request to graft a fig!!).

The available budwood is extremely limited in this situation....I cannot chip bud the available buds, as there is no suitably-matched side limb available in the positions where my friend wants me to place the buds.

My question is not academic, it is a request for practical answers about the success of the patch budding method on figs, from a grafter with such experience.

I would like to now report that in the intervening time, I decided to take Captainjohn's advice to do my own trials.

Here are my findings-

1. Chip-budding, using current season's growth as buds matched onto rootstock material of similar growth maturity, proved to be very successful.

2. Patch-budding proved less successful.

It was only successful where the thickness of the donor bark was very close to the thickness of the recipient bark.

In cases where I saw significant differences in the two bark thicknesses, I utilised the "modified patch-budding" method to compensate for this. However, as stated before, this was met with absolute failure.

Thanks for the update, scion - it's good to know.

Scion,
THanks for reporting on this. Looks like I'll have some more experiments to do later this year!